Informant Says Firebombing Plot Case Is Based on Phony Tape

An informant, who was instrumental in building a federal case against two Dana Point women already facing conspiracy charges in an alleged plot to firebomb several cars, says she was intimidated into making a phony recording that prompted additional charges against the women.

Defense attorneys said Tuesday that they will use the new evidence to ask the judge later this week to dismiss the charges that the government brought based on the recording.

The case involves Charlotte Ruth Wyckoff, 51, and her housemate, Elizabeth Leta Hamilton, 39. In June, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted them and five others on charges that they conspired to firebomb cars belonging to former employees of their chain of private schools in August, 1985. The schools, in Orange and San Bernardino counties, were closed shortly after the women were indicted.

A second indictment filed against the women charged them with plotting to kill or kidnap Wyckoff’s daughter, Shirley Wright, 28, to keep her from testifying against them.

That charge was based almost entirely on a tape recording made by the informant and a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Wyckoff and Hamilton have pleaded not guilty to all the charges and are being held without bail at Sybil Brand Institute for Women in Los Angeles.

The case took a strange turn Monday when Joann Russo, who is out on bail, told Wyckoff’s attorney that the ATF agent she was working for intimidated her into making the phony tape recording. She said the woman on the tape is not Wyckoff but another inmate at Sybil Brand who was tricked into making a phone call to the ATF agent.

On the tape, the woman arranged to have someone meet Wright in a bar and rough her up. The tape recording, made by William L. Queen, special ATF agent, was presented to a federal grand jury.

“I had the tape tested, and it is not my client’s voice,” said David E. Kenner, Wyckoff’s attorney.

Kenner said he met with Russo Monday. Kenner said Russo and Queen had a longstanding relationship.

“Russo claims the agent said, ‘Do whatever you have to do (to strengthen the government’s case),’ ” Kenner said.

Based on Russo’s statements, Kenner said, he plans to file a motion to dismiss the counts in the government’s case against Wyckoff and Hamilton later this week.

David Trow, assistant special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said: “We are making no comment whatsoever and referring all inquiries to the U.S. attorney’s office.”

Government prosecutors said they would consider Russo’s statement and the analysis of the tape recording.

“If there is conclusive evidence that the tape is fraudulent, we would consider it,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles J. Stevens. He declined to say whether the government has conducted its own analysis of the tape to be sure it was Wyckoff’s voice.

Kenner met with Stevens and co-prosecutor David W. Wiechert late Tuesday to discuss the tape recording and new evidence.

“We will take everything we have been told under advisement,” said Wiechert.